The Velvet Room and Wild Cards
"Welcome to the Velvet Room. This place exists between dream and reality, mind and matter. My name is Igor... I am delighted to make your acquaintance."
- --Igor
The Velvet Room is a place where entities who serve the Guide Philemon act as guides themselves to assist those who wield the powers of Persona meet their narrative destiny. Like Philemon himself, the Velvet Room and its attendants believe in humanity's potential for enlightenment and often choose the bare minimum interference against the machinations. Instead, they offer services that allow a Persona User, in particular a Wild Card, to develop that potential to the fullest.
Where is it?
Between dream and reality, mind and matter. No, really. For most characters, the Velvet Room is a mysterious omnipresent locale with doors in every major city known to Persona User communities. Everyone knows it isn't normal for a place, and the people within it, to be in multiple locations at once; everyone realizes those people aren't exactly human. Will they answer questions on that part?
Not directly.
The point is, all Persona Users quickly understand there are individuals within the Collective Unconscious that are not quite human, and all of them get over it just as quickly once they realize the benefits of using their services.
For most characters, the Velvet Room is how their Skill Cards manifest onto their Persona. The Demon Painter within can take blank Tarot Cards and turn them into Skill Cards, and Igor is able to attach them.
These services do come with a small fee. All actions by the Velvet Room have value, and currency is the accepted method of covering that value cognitively.
Doors to the Velvet Room are present in the Paulownia Mall in Tatsumi Port Island, the Aoba Way shopping district in Sumaru City, the Central Street of Shibuya in Tokyo, and the Sun Mall in Mikage-cho. Inaba does not have a Velvet Room door yet. Blame the weather.
It also shows up in supernatural spaces! When and where it shows up is entirely at random, but usually if you've found Trish, it's somewhere nearby. She typically parks herself beside it to make a tidy profit off desperation.
What version does my character see?
For most characters, the version you get is the Persona 2: Eternal Punishment version, which is a circular, windowless lounge in shades of blue, the center marked by two uneven raised platforms each a single footfall tall. There aren't places for guests to sit; most hang out near the wall.
It's a peculiar experience for first-time visitors. The blindfolded pianist known only as Nameless plays relaxing music on a grand piano, while the soprano lounge singer named Belladonna praises the visitors who challenge the self through haunting arias sung into a standing microphone. The Demon Painter smokes in front of his easel as he awaits requests for his Skill Card services, while Igor sits upon his personal couch, spindly fingers folding and unfolding.
If you're a Wild Card, however, the experience is a bit different…
What is a Wild Card?
A Wild Card is a rare individual with the potential to wield multiple Personas. These people are inevitably on the Fool Arcana journey because, like the Fool, the Wild Card is representative of the number zero. As zero, they are both a void with infinite potential to be filled.
These individuals nearly always have a narrative destiny within the Collective Unconscious, given what the Fool's Journey represents. People with this potential do not arise without that destiny being assigned to them. There is no way to predict who will manifest the Wild Card potential; the narrative is drawn for them from the Collective Unconscious for that journey.
Having this destiny does not guarantee success, only the journey itself.
Each Wild Card upon awakening receives a Persona or Personas appropriate for their narrative just like anyone else, but that Persona is merely a starting point. Their power and growth is based on bonds. The void that they represent is filled not just by the Personas they wield but innumerable bonds they are meant to create on their journey. These bonds offer immense strength to the Personas they take on.
Wild Cards can take on Personas instinctively, gaining them either through selecting cards of archetypes during Shuffle Time or after successful negotiation with Metaverse Shadows and absorption of an ephemeral representation of them.
Furthermore, by forming pacts with Demons, Wild Cards can gain Tarot Cards. These cards may then be exchanged to the Velvet Room for Personas not yet within their compendium.
The Velvet Room and Wild Cards
Just before awakening, most Wild Cards will begin to have dreams of being in a strange room with a long-nosed man and his attendant(s). How seriously the person takes them depends upon the person.
Past their awakening, the Wild Card requires guidance, typically the assistance of the Velvet Room, in order for their powers to develop further. The Velvet Room almost always offers extra services to this person; think of it like concierge services for special guests. For these special guests, their Velvet Room will take on a form that is appropriate to their narrative journey. Whether it's an elevator in perpetual motion, a car navigating the fog, or a prison block, it always fits the journey.
Each guest will also receive a personalized attendant in blue who only looks human. These attendants will offer services to the guest in question, and might demand personalized attention in return. They are, after all, on their own journey. These services by Igor and the attendants include: special Personas they have not yet encountered in exchange for Tarot Cards of the appropriate arcana; Skill Cards; fusion; and the Persona Compendium, allowing them to re-obtain past Personas for their own purposes.
Furthermore, the Velvet Room will appear in more locations for them that only they can see. Interacting with these portals to the Velvet Room will cause the Wild Card to be transported there, but to everyone else they'll just appear like they spaced out for a few seconds.
It is an extraordinarily rare occurrence for anyone else but the Wild Card to appear within their unique version of the Velvet Room. However, everything that happens in this place has meaning, and anyone who appears is someone who is strongly tied to their fate.
If all of a Wild Card's comrades appear and are interacting with their Velvet Room, it almost certainly means that something is gravely wrong.
The Velvet Room does not require its guests to be guided by Philemon. The appearance of a Wild Card itself is significant enough that the guidance will be offered regardless.
Inheriting the Wild Card
In exceptionally rare circumstances, the Wild Card may be passed on from one character to someone meaningful to them. This typically happens at the end of one narrative journey and the beginning of another. Perhaps a Wild Card has passed on, and their powerful bond with someone causes their Wild Card abilities to transfer to them.
Sometimes it is due to an alteration of life's journey, a traumatic event, a rejection of guidance, or a wish for another. Usually, these happen only from world-shattering events of incredible significance.
The Wild Card passing to another may have unforeseen side effects on the individual inheriting it. It is a mysterious power, and creating a void for roles and bonds in another person might just begin a narrative for them based on need, emotionally.
OOC Notes and Caveats
Spoiler Warning: There are implied spoilers regarding Persona 5 below. Don't read down if you'd prefer not to know.
- The Igor that everyone receives is the Persona 5 one, including his voice, no matter which version of the Velvet Room. Nevertheless, he acts exactly the same as canon in every other theme save that he calls it 'his' Velvet Room. The reason for this will be revealed later.
- Igor does not ever perform the fusion sequence in the Eternal Punishment timeline, instead leaving it up to his servants for the Wild Cards. This means he hands the 'hellphone' over to Belladonna, or has an attendant read the cards, perform the executions, or whichever thematically appropriate method that is decided for OC Wild Cards.
- Please do not try to be smarter than the narrative here, even as a Tatsuya Suou player. The world is now changed and things like Igor sounding different just do not rate suspicion.
- Wild Cards can enter the other version of the Velvet Room for all other characters through their entrances in the real world, but fusion is unavailable in this version for them. They have to do that in their personalized concierge version of the Velvet Room. How terrible.
- Naoya Toudou, Maya Amano, and any other OC Wild Cards are welcome to develop their own personalized version of the Velvet Room, including an attendant! Describing it in the application and how the symbolism applies to their story would be peachy keen!
- Wild Cards have different Arcana System rules! Check that section for details.